Breaking news, Friday 16 November

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LATEST: A music project that aims to transform children’s lives is to be established in Glasgow, thanks to more than £1 million of Scottish Government cash.

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4.40pm: A music project that aims to transform children’s lives is to be established in Glasgow, thanks to more than £1 million of Scottish Government cash. Sistema Scotland has been allocated £1.325 million to expand its work into Govanhill - one of the most deprived areas of the city.

4.00pm: Dundee is set to launch a bid to be chosen as the United Kingdom’s City of Culture in 2017. Councillors will consider a detailed report on Monday, calling on the authority to establish a bid development group to drive the proposal forward.

2.55pm: Air Raid sirens have sounded this afternoon in the holy city of Jerusalem Israeli Army Radio said the alert was intended for Israeli towns near the holy city. In Gaza, Hamas’s military wing said it had fired a long-range rocket at Jerusalem, about 70km from the Palestinian enclave. Israeli police said they had no immediate information on whether a rocket had hit the city.

2.15pm: Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell believes UEFA is coming round to the idea of expanding leagues beyond borders in a bid to reduce the disparity in European football.

Lawwell also revealed that Celtic’s Champions League run had already offset the financial impact of the loss of Rangers.

2.00pm: Appeal judges have refused to cut a 25-month jail term imposed on an amateur footballer for assaulting an opponent.

Scott McQuillan, 24, reacted after a “fairly bad tackle from behind” on a colleague by Craig Logan, 29, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh heard. He punched him and broke his jaw.

1.55pm: Rail workers in Scotland are to be balloted for strikes over alleged victimisation of an employee, raising the threat of action over Christmas.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union claimed one of its members at ScotRail was sacked for trying to help a passenger buy the correct ticket for a journey.

12.55pm: Egypt’s prime minister has called for an end to Israeli operations in Gaza, describing the attacks a “balant aggression against humanity”. Mohammed Morsi said Cairo would not leave Gaza “on its own”.

12.40pm: Dave Lee Travis, who was arrested yesterday by officers investigating the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal, today denied any wrongdoing, adding: “This is nothing to do with kids.”

12.25pm: Scotland flanker Alasdair Strokosch has been ruled out of tomorrow’s EMC Test with South Africa due to a calf injury, the Scottish Rugby Union has announced.

12.20pm: A north east based composer will finally see an ambition he has held for four decades come to fruition during a special concert at Aberdeen’s Music Hall on Sunday, as one of his own works receives its world premiere.

12.15pm: Grampian Police are appealing for information after the window of a car was deliberately smashed as it was being driven along Aberdeen’s Great Northern Road.

12.10pm: More than half of Scots are satisfied with the way the SNP Government is running the country, the latest polling evidence has found. The Ipsos MORI survey was carried out before the Nationalists’ recent troubles over resignations, EU legal advice and college funding.

11.45am: A project at Dundee University, aimed at powering scientific research across the globe in potentially vital breakthroughs in biology, has been awarded £700,000 in funding as part of a £5.5million investment announced today by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

10.30am: Parkmead, the fledgling Scottish oil explorer run by Dana Petroleum founder Tom Cross, says it will continue to seek acquisitions despite having built up “a balanced portfolio of assets” with four acquisitions in seven months.

10.25am: British forces must withdraw from Afghanistan as quickly as possible before any more troops are killed, Liberal Democrat former leader Lord Ashdown said today. In a damning assessment of the campaign in Afghanistan, he said allied forces had failed to build a sustainable state and establish a government which was untainted by corruption.

10.20am: The winter vomiting bug has started early this year in Scotland prompting concern rates may be “higher than normal level”, medical chiefs say.

9.30am: The grandmother of a young victim of a canoe tragedy in the Highlands is calling for a lasting poignant memorial at the scene of the devastating accident. Juliann Mackay lost her five-year-old grand-daughter Grace when a canoe capsized at Gairloch in Wester Ross in the summer, claiming four lives.

9.20am: The former Livingston owner Angelo Massone has lodged a £4.5 million bid for Hearts. The Rome-based lawyer is said to be acting on behalf of an Italian consortium which has now put a formal offer to legal representatives of Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov.

9.10am: A high-profile inquiry into banking is to be held in Inverness next month. Highland MP John Thurso is to lead the Scotland panel for the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Stardards, which was set up in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

8.50am: Israel offered to suspend its offensive in the Gaza Strip today during a brief visit by Egypt’s premier if militants refrain from firing rockets, an official said. An official in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli leader was responding to an Egyptian request.

Prime minister Hesham Kandil crossed into Gaza before midday through the only border post between Egypt and Gaza. Gaza militants stepped up their barrages of rocket fire into Israel as Mr Kandil crossed into Gaza through the only border post with Egypt, heavily guarded by Egyptian security personnel wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles.

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